It always confuses me when people say you can’t ship Piper and Leo with the argument they are step-siblings and then turn around and ship Charlie and Silena (A canon ship) like it isn’t the exact same thing???
Piper collage art? Idk but I kinda like doing these type of art? Should I do more?
If you search on my socials you can see my first drawing of piper that was basically one year ago?? Sigh time flies so fast but I hope you like her in these drawings! Also her pupils turn into hearts when she uses charmspeak, it’s not canon but since I say so, now it is (I’m joking but really, the heart pupil and maybe some pink hue like in the show Merlin lmao)
Also!! I just love drawing piper and add small hearts everywhere heheheh I apologize
These days drawing Piper is just a comfort thing to do? I just love the shapes I can use while drawing her but also, I looked at my one year old art of piper and i was???? surprised? I improved a lot this last year and I’m surprised about it and I’m trying to be happy with it but… it’s hart to compare yourself to you old self only, I keep comparing myself to others and that makes no sense bc my path is different from the one of the others so the result is obviously different, sigh I’m rambling but to people comparing to my art (if there are any) YOUR PATH IS YOURS ONLY AND IS VALID AS IT IS TODAY BECAUSE YOU ARE BETTER THAN THE YOU OF BEFORE
The girls but unfinished bc I got distracted with another art? Lmao
Yeah but I wasn’t much satisfied with this, maybe the poses, the colors, the faces? Sometimes is better to just try to finish it but also learn to stop and move on when things keeps looking meh
also can my design for the characters stay consistent please
Please readcarefully before commenting. Feel free to share it + add your contribution to this really short tutorial! And do your research.
(I posted this first on ig, I’m sharing it everywhere since people asked me to!)
Please be nice to each other. I’m not gatekeeping or censoring anyone, I’m not exposing anyone either. I’ve done a lot of research in the past years and it pains me to see that there are still people drawing indigenous as a stereotype and not caring a bit about their issues.
I’m not an expert and there is A LOT that needs to be said. Piper should be a representation for native people, respect their culture and don’t make up excuses. Rick gave her feathers as an embracing element.that’s offensive. BEADWORK IS THE EMBRACING ELEMENT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR.
Some questions I got under my instagram post (i suggest you to check the comments, people were really nice to each other and asked/answered each other’s questions)
BUT IN CANON SHE WEARS AN HARPY FEATHER: Canon did her wrong. It doesn’t matter what’s written in the book. Wearing a feather is a sacred and important tradition that non-indigenous can’t understand. Trust what native voices tell you. DO BEADWORK.
PIPER IS HALF CHEROKEE Actually, no, gods don’t have DNA. Plus even if she was, there are a lot of mixed natives that still have native face traits or that they don’t. There isn’t one and only way to look native. It’s the culture that make you one so, BEADWORK no feathers
CAN I DRAW PIPER WITH GREEN/BLUE EYES? Indigenous people might have different eye colors, when I asked this question to indigenous people they said that they all look different, some are blonde with blue eyes and that doesn’t make them less indigenous. However as artist we should represent Piper as an indigenous and break all the harmful stereotypes that were build during the years. We should give PROPER REPRESENTATION to indigenous people. As long as you respect the culture, you can use differen eyes colors be aware that there are different opinions on this. Just be nice, you can change the eye color if you want but give her the native features that were hated and used for bullying: the nose, the skin color, no feathers, BEADWORK. Let’s try to reverse the damage
I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DRAW BRAIDS, ARE OTHER HAIRSTYLES OFFENSIVE? not at all! The braids are a tradition hairstyle but you can draw her hair down as long as you don’t add feathers. The braids are a nice touch to draw a “piper embracing her heritage”
oh my, i’m done, I can’t think of anything else. Again, this is a really simple and basic collection of stuff, I didn’t went in depth because I’m not good at explaining stuff but this is a tutorial made by an artist for the artists.
I want to say that I came here doing mistakes, most of the time without even realising. Making errors is fine and people shouldn’t be cancelled for them. I’m thankful for the people that reached out to me and talked with me about indigenous (and more) issues. Just be sure to be open, research and listen to people’s voices. Stop trying to find excuses to draw piper with feathers in her hair, stop this. She is a character that has the power to bring awareness to the world. Let’s do our best, apologise, listen and DO BETTER!
Again, I feel like I have to say this 100 times, I’m not perfect and I won’t ever be. I’m just trying to help others like people helped me. I just have a bigger voice lately (THANK U FOR FOLLOWING ME AW) and I really want to make the difference.
ONE MORE THING: thank you people on instagram that helped me, some of you want to stay anonymous but you still deserve a public gigant THANK YOU. love u
Apollo spends time with all of his children. He visits Camp a lot, and they do things together. Watching movies, going hiking, arguing about the books they’ve been reading. He’s not sure that he’s a very good father, but he’s trying.
He also takes time for each of them individually. He takes Austin to watch jazz bands and when Austin gets a slot performing at a small venue, Apollo is in the crowd.
It turns out Will has a natural talent for driving the sun chariot. Apollo is relieved that he doesn’t have to relive the terror of letting Thalia take the wheel. Thank the gods his child is better at driving than his sister. Sometimes he and Will head out from camp and just drive around, listening to music and talking. Will has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders and it gives him a break.
Kayla is extremely competitive, and she’s never disheartened that her father has an unnatural ability in archery. In fact, she uses it as motivation to improve. They talk about the process of qualifying for the Olympics and what she’ll need to do. Apollo becomes her unofficial coach, and he even gets to meet her other dad again at one of her competitions.
He takes time getting to know his other children. At first, they’re confused. Was he always at Camp? Did he distance himself from them until they got there? He chooses to be honest with them. He could lie, and tell them he’s always visited Camp Half-Blood. But he knows now that he only hurts people by lying and pretending that he’s a better person than he is.
Piano lessons with Meg are predictably chaotic. He discovers that god or not, she’s not afraid to punch him in the ribs when he annoys her, which she seems to do more often than is reasonable. It unnerves him that Peaches also seems to show up every time he’s teaching Meg, as if he’s threatening Apollo.
Nico remains thoroughly unimpressed by him, but they begin to develop a friendship. He understands that Nico is reserved because he’s hurting. Apollo doesn’t push him to talk, but he makes it clear that if Nico ever needs anything, he will do what he can. He is happy to see that Nico and Will are happy together, and sometimes Apollo will take over healing duties at Camp so that Will can take time off and take Nico on a date.
Weekly pinochle tournaments are now a thing. Apollo and Dionysus have even drawn up a score board, and they take the competition seriously. At least, that’s what they like to pretend. Really, they just enjoy spending time together and talking as brothers. Chiron is resigned to their competitive attitude, but he can always be found on the porch, talking with them.
During their first winter break, Percy and Annabeth drop by and visit Camp. There are fewer people there than during the summer, but sometimes, less is more. The year rounders decorate the dining pavilion and all of the cabins, and even Mr. D gets into the Christmas spirit after being pestered by Nico, and agrees to decorate the big house. He tried to protest, arguing that Greek gods do not celebrate Christmas, but after the fifth zombie popped up in his path he gave up and agreed to join in. Percy and Annabeth bring lots of stories from Camp Jupiter and their first semester at New Rome University. They also bring plenty of photos of Estelle, and all of the campers agree that she is family.
They Iris message the Waystation, Meg, and Hazel and Frank at Camp Jupiter. Who knew four-way Iris messages were possible. Suddenly the room is full of familiar faces and voices, exchanging news. Apollo thinks that in all of his life, this is the most perfect holiday he’s ever had.
I don’t know why but I have this headcanon that the Apollo kids have an older sister who lives in NYC. She’s like 22 or something as of TOA, so she was only around 19 when Lee was killed and then a year later Michael died, so she feels pretty responsible because she’d gone off to college to start her life, and although she rushed to join the battles she couldn’t save her brothers.
But she’s that cool older sister. She’s really into music, she plays guitar in a band and sings, and when she was a kid she participated in a lot of theater. When Will and Nico are annoyed with everyone at camp she lets them crash at her place and they stay up late watching tv and she doesn’t care if they go to the movies and come home late as long as she knows they’re safe.
She doesn’t take any shit from Mr. D and she’s only two years older than Castor and Pollux so was pretty good friends with them when they were all kids. She’d just laugh when Mr. D would try giving her a hard time and he has grudging respect for her because of this.
She was left at camp when she was really young, younger than Annabeth even and so she looks up to Chiron as a parent. She’s tried to be there for her younger siblings, but in that chaotic way you do when you’re not raised in a typical family and don’t actually have a great role model to follow. She remembers the things Chiron taught her, not just about studying but also about being kind and showing up for your friends, and she tries to model those things in how she interacts with her siblings.
She listens to Will and tries to guide him through his task of leading the Apollo cabin. Austin hangs out with her and they play music together and she takes him to see all the cool bands in the city. Kayla is relieved that she has an older sister and they talk about growing up and figuring out who you want to be and how you’re supposed to have anything close to a normal dating life when you live at Camp Half-Blood. Neither of them are really interested in their hair or makeup but sometimes they will dye each other’s hair and they wander around the stores and pick out ridiculous outfits that they think are ugly and are never going to buy.
Apollo disappointed her a lot. He was never really there for her, as he was never there for any of them. And there’s a part of her that resented him for this, particularly after Lee died and he didn’t even visit any of them. But she would have never considered joining Luke to fight against the gods. Not because she thinks the gods are right, she doesn’t. But because she loves Camp Half-Blood and everyone who lives there too much, and she wants to build something better, not tear down the world.
So there you go. A headcanon that has absolutely no basis in anything RR has written but that still feels very real to me.
All the grishaverse, riordanverse, shadowhunter chronicles, throne of glass and marvel characters do be kinda fruity to me- anyways happy bisexual visibility day<33
i like to think these two made amends after the lost hero?? drew’s still officially second in command which means piper still trusts her enough not to be terrible to leave her in charge when they go on the whole prophecy of seven quest. besides she can’t be all bad so what’s the harm in some fistbumpin action hell yeah
(i wish i was better at fashion so i could actually draw her in something nice sobs)
You know what would have been so much more interesting and huge cliche dodge?
If Drew wasn’t a one dimensional asshole written to be the personification of the child of Aphrodite stereotype.
If the reason Drew was so confrontational with Piper is because Piper automatically assumes being a child of Aphrodite is lame and has the perception that being interested in beauty and fashion are negative things.
If the reason Drew has negative feelings towards Silena is because Silena was Drew’s BIG SISTER and Drew absolutely LOVED her but then she turned out to be a traitor and she died in the war and Drew is hurt and conflicted and angry and mourning and she doesn’t know how to express these things in a healthy way. And yeah, this may lead her to being an ass towards her siblings but not a 100% bully who doesn’t give a fuck about them.
If at the end of TLH instead of Piper doing a hostile takeover of the cabin she and Drew have a heart to heart and Drew finally expresses what she’s been feeling over the circumstances of Silena’s final days and death and Piper expresses that she understand that Aphrodite just looking into mirrors and obsessing over love partners.
Also no catty fighting over Jason because that shit just made me want to rip my hair out.
from someone outside the US and two years after tower of Nero
Hazel: the corpse bride, her and Nico watched it together on the Argo II and she immediately felt sympathy for her after all the undead can’t help that they are dead.
Piper: Elizabeth from the pirates of the Caribbean - gives half the wlw campers gay panic.
Frank: Victor from the corpse bride as he really wanted to do a couple outfit and the rest of the seven don’t point out to him that Victor ends up with Victoria instead.
Annabeth: She goes as Captain Marvel because a) she’s the opposite of a dumb blonde stereotype and b) she’s queer coded which allows Annabeth to hint to her friends that she’s bi without having to come out. ahem bi Percabeth
Percy: He doesn’t normally celebrate Halloween but since Estelle was born she begged him to go with her (her as Tinkerbell and him as Peter Pan) and they are adorable. Not to mention Annabeth gets baby fever seeing Estelle and Percy interact.
Jason: Andrew Garfield’s spider-man (no explanation needed)
Leo : Adding to the Marvel Theme he goes as Iron man (dark haired geniuses with parental issues are just >>>) with a working suit. He’s also a big nerd which Nico used to tease him about until Leo found out about his Mythomagic collection and Nico hasn’t teased him since.
here are my initial reactions to tower of nero. some are hilarious some are heartbreaking (also sorry in advance for the excessive amount of swearing)
WTF WHAT THE FUCK WHHHAAAAT THHEE FUUUCCK
DJSKDJDJGHFJK AHHHH ok but more seriously remember when rick had to struggle to even write nico being gay in to hoh cause it was a childrens book and was still highly controversial at the time so he couldnt actually say the word gay and now hes full on making gay jokes cause im so happy. AND REMEBER WHEN HE USED THAT PICTURE ON TWITTER WHEN SOMEONE TALKED ABOUT NICO GUYS GUYS I JUST DHSJKD
GO AHEAD AND JUST BREAK MY HEART WHY DONT YOU WHO TF GAVE RICK RIORDAN THE RIGHT TO KILL JASON GRACE AND PUT NICO THROUGH EVEN MORE PAIN. and the way nico knows when people die but he had to be sure first :(( this is so sad guys help
guys im not ok i cant do this anymore i cant read this book anymore. nico di angelo deserves to be happy fuck rick for killing jason
HE GLOWS?!!?!!?
just adding to the list of reasons im not ok rn
i will reblog with part 2 cause i’ve reached ten pictures
part 2
remember when they were kids. remember when they were kids who were falling in love and now theyre freshman in college and they still havent let go of the nicknames. guys im not ok im really not i have 11 more pages of this book i dont want this to be the end
PIPER MCLEAN IS CANONLY DATING A GIRL CAN YOU HEAR ME SCREAMING CAN YOU HEAR ME FUCKING SCREAMING OMG OMG OMG OMG
and now for the end
i have a shit ton to unpack rn. im sad im really sad cause this is the end and i dont wanna accept that. these books mean the world to me and i really dont want this to be the end. guys its 3 am and i just read a 400 page book in 3 hours and im just exhausted and sad and still denying jasons death but also he wrapped the story up amazingly and im just really satisfied with ending. idk what to say but i just still cant believe its over. i dont want it to be over. still angry jasons dead tho and i will say that till i die he deserved to live
so at the end I have to say that these books changed my life. they’re the reason I started to love reading and I will forever be grateful for them. I have so many emotions and I think every one of the books is amazing in its own way. I’m so proud of the characters and all they went through. seeing them grow and change was amazing. my life will forever be better because of these stories and I’ve learned so much from them. thank you rick riordan, thank you for sharing this world with us.
Rachel is literally one of the richest people in the country…all she had to do was say her full name and that chauffeur in botl immediately cancelled on his client to drive her and her friends around. When you add her wealth and status to the fact that she’s very outspoken about her family’s entire business and organizes and promotes multiple protests and does performance art…like. she’s popular online. no doubt.
Piper’s dad is supposed to be like, the hottest guy in Hollywood, and even though those girls from the wilderness school didn’t recognize her, he doesn’t really strike me as the type of celebrity parent to shield her from the media or events- he wants her to enjoy and take advantage of the privilege she has. I’m sure he’s got her plastered all over his social media and takes her as his date to every red carpet premiere. When you take into account she’s a Troubled Youth™, I’m sure gossip mags and anyone who likes celebrity kids is obsessed with her.
Annabeth, since Magnus is ‘’’’dead’’’’, is legally the sole heir to her family’s entire fortune, and technically owns the building that Blitz and Hearth are running that wonderful homeless youth shelter out of. I’m sure that will get her some media coverage.
And then we’ve got…Percy, the kid everyone remembers blew up the St. Louis Arch and I’m SURE there are still debates about whether he was really a hostage or not years later. Frank, who’s grandmother was a wealthy business woman, who hasn’t been seen since his family’s estate mysteriously exploded. Thalia and Jason, who are literally the missing children of a disgraced Hollywood starlet. Don’t you think this could…get messy?
Like…Percy popping up on Rachel and Annabeth’s instagrams, and people who recognize him are just like ‘hey what the fuck’, and internet sleuths who have been obsessed with that case look further into it, and realize Annabeth was also involved in the mysterious kidnapping/terrorist streak, then looking further into her and realizing…apart from her and her nuclear family, everyone she’s related to has died under very mysterious circumstances? Magnus was pulled out of a river with a hole burned into his abdomen. Randolph’s wife and children drowned at sea, Randolph was thrown down a cavern or something, Magnus’ mother was mauled by wolves in her apartment in the middle of Boston…like hello? Then they realize there’s no record of Annabeth like, existing, between the ages of 7 and 12, and…does this bitch even have a birth certificate? Her father’s a notable professor and author, but there’s no mention of her mother anywhere, not even a single picture, and when pressed his life long friends said he just showed up with a baby one day, without even having ever mentioned he was seeing a woman…so this baby just? appeared? one day, with no warning, and now she’s an heiress who owns a homeless shelter in a city she doesn’t live in? what the fuck? The internet sleuths started out trying to crack the mystery of the Arch Bombing and somehow opened up a whole other can of worms.
Oh, right- the bomber! How does Percy Jackson know Rachel Elizabeth Dare?! The conspiracy theorists are worried about that- maybe it wasn’t a kidnapping, maybe the kid really was on a crime spree, and now maybe Rachel is looking to take her protests up to a new level and is looking at this criminal mastermind for help. Some weirdo who knows how to use a facial recognition program and has too much time on his hands identifies them both as being present at the Hoover Dam Riots from a few years ago- the riot that lead to the destruction of those angel statues! The sleuths are then able to pull up an article tying both of them to an explosion at their high school- but with Rachel’s father’s wealth and Percy’s stepfather being a respected teacher there, it’s no wonder charges were dropped! They then find some other weird, buried reports- Rachel stealing a helicopter and flying it into Manhattan? Rachel appearing to have deranged, mysterious ‘episodes’ in the middle of class? Wait, what the fuck- Percy’s school principal reported him as a missing person, and his mother and stepfather were uncooperative with the police investigation? Then Percy showed up 8 months later and claimed his aunt kidnapped him, but wouldn’t give the police any information past that?
So the sleuths start digging into those 8 months- there’s security camera footage showing Percy, looking haggard and homeless, stealing a cop car? around the area of that huge explosion in Rome? spotted all around Greece in the days before the bombing at the Parthenon? What the fuck?
Then, holy shit- they find footage of him and missing teen Frank Zhang getting onto a private plane less than 20 minutes after the Zhang estate was blown up?? These conspiracy theorists aren’t even barely ready for this rabbit hole. The Zhang kid isn’t very active on social media, but combing through Percy Jackson’s pages they’re able to find a few images of him. Recent, post-estate bombing ones. Most of them appear to be goofy selfies with Percy and an unidentified girl that was also spotted on the security footage with them, but there’s one group shot that catches everyone’s eyes- because apart from featuring the weird Chase girl, what the fuck is that Tristan McLean’s daughter????
So they start combing through Piper’s pages- she’s more active than the Zhang kid, but apart from posting her mugshots with goofy captions, going on rants about meat-eaters, and posting videos of her dad being weird, she doesn’t have a lot of information. Except…one internet sleuth that joined this internet search party swears she recognizes a boy that pops up in a lot of pics on her instagram. Some more digging and they got it- it’s Leo Valdez, the kid who was accused of killing his mother! He’s got some cousins that have been trying to clear his name for years now, but they haven’t been able to find him because he keeps running from foster homes, they have a whole page dedicated to people trying to track him down! They contact the Valdez family members, and they’re elated to find out he’s alive and safe- but then it becomes a question of how does he know Piper McLean and what was he doing with her, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Frank Zhang in Greece around the time of the Parthenon bombing???
They start looking into the other two teenagers pictured with the group in Greece- they can’t find anything on the young girl, other than the Jackson kid referring to her as ‘Hazel’ in some of his posts, but the other boy…
He’s not very active online- just some aesthetic coffee shop pics, a few blurry selfies, and designs for what appears to be an architecture project at his school. But his username is ‘*disgraced*’, he’s called ‘Jay’ and ‘Jason’ in posts by his friends, he’s got blond hair, striking blue eyes, and a very specific scar on his lip…
THE TRUE CRIME COMMUNITY IS FLIPPING THEIR FUCKING SHIT. DID THEY JUST FIND BERYL GRACE’S MISSING SON AFTER 15 FUCKING YEARS?!?!?!
Sleuths completely drop the bomb plot at this fucking point, and put all their energy in finding out if this is The Jason Grace, and- they literally can’t find a record of this person before he suddenly started appearing on Piper McLean’s and Leo Valdez’ media profiles. It looks like all his social accounts were started in August of the year he would’ve turned sixteen. But he’s the right age, he looks close to the computer generated age-up pictures made for the case, and- holy shit someone found a picture on Percy Jackson’s instagram of Jason and a girl called Thalia!
People are losing their minds- this girl looks a lot younger than the 20-something Thalia should be, but Beryl Grace was known for her innocent baby-faced look, so that can explain the difference between her and the aged-up picture. Same striking blue eyes as the boy next to her, same freckle pattern splashed across her nose, same raven hair and sharp smile that made her one of Hollywood’s biggest beauties before she could even talk properly.
She doesn’t seem to have any social media herself, but pops up in quite a few of Jackson’s and the Chase girl’s pictures. Once Beryl Grace’s old friends, who have been searching for her children for years, see the picture of the smiling siblings together, it’s nothing but tears. They’re insistent that these are absolutely the Grace siblings, and are begging the police in charge of their case to track them down. They want to know they’re safe! And the rest of the world wants answers! Where have they been for all these years!
And how are they connected to what appears to be an ongoing bombing/murder/money grabbing plot????
what is going on here?!?!?!
All this information gets dragged up in less than a month. People are going full Pepe Silvia level crazy trying to piece everything together. Netflix has already announced a conspiracy documentary about the hunt for the truth about this band of kids and what their end goal is.
Chiron’s just sitting at Camp Halfblood watching all this shit go down like:
Annabeth’s little brothers Bobby and Matthew are going Full Feral Gen Z online to fan the flames of conspiracy, “oh yeah the first time we met Percy Jackson and Thalia Grace they stole our dad’s car and drove it off a mountain”, “one time Annie stabbed a man in front of us”, they post a tik tok of what appears to be Annabeth and Percy drenched in blood and dust cleaning off weapons??? They set an ABBA song over it??? Everyone’s losing their minds but then one day on a live stream people start asking if they know Why their sister and her friends are like this and they just dead pan, ‘oh, they’re all demigods. the ancient gods are all real and it just gets messy for their kids sometimes, Annie’s mom is Athena-” and everyone is like ah. they’re just assholes feeding us false information. (they still post tik toks like ‘put a finger down if one time your sister took you out for ice cream but then this weird man who would later hold the titan kronos in his body showed up and begged her to run away with him so he could avoid the kronos thing even though she was like 15 and he was an adult and then she pulled out a knife and told him she should slit his throat after all he’s put her through but then he called her out on her bluff but still accepted the rejection and left and then she offered to get you a second helping of ice cream if you didn’t tell your parents about that whole thing and then later the ice cream parlor was attacked by a snake woman’ lmao)
Anyway, desktop detectives keep pressuring the police and the fbi and whoever the fuck to look into this whole thing deeper and make some arrests, but they can’t, because while everything that’s been surfaced is suspicious, it’s all circumstantial. The only ones that actually have arrest records are Piper and Leo( and Leo’s was without evidence, as his cousins are still fighting to get the case reopened!), all charges on Percy and Rachel have already been dropped or overturned, there’s absolutely nothing physically connecting Annabeth and her father to their family’s deaths, Frank was never actually a suspect in his family’s fire and while the footage with Percy was suspicious it wasn’t illegal, and they still haven’t been able to physically produce the Grace Siblings or even get a phone number for either of them, so like….all that plus the occasional intervention of the Mist, even though it absolutely looks like this is a whole criminal master plot…they can’t prove it! Just taking a group picture on a boat in Greece isn’t enough to legally claim they bombed the Parthenon!
This all comes to a head when the Netflix docuseries premieres, full of the online theorists who pieced this whole puzzle together but where unable to find the last piece that would connect the whole plot and make it make sense….
Percy Jackson films a video of him and all his friends who are fingered in the docuseries watching and reacting to it. They think it’s completely hilarious. He posts the video to his youtube channel (which Sally later Murders him for) and it’s the top trending video for like…half a fucking year.
like…the drama. the mess. the conspiracy. I want it.
Hello! Welcome to week two of diving into fictional universes with me. Last week was Harry Potter and this week is Percy Jackson! Hope you enjoy!
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Universe: Percy Jackson
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I have had a very weird first 16 years of my life. My mom had died when I was just a baby, and my dad never wanted to talk about her. So, being a girl growing up without a mom was hard, especially when your dad’s face turned bright red anytime you talked about anything girl-related. If that wasn’t a huge part already, having your dad travel the world with you and not making any real friends was also an issue. I had never stayed anywhere longer than 3 months in my entire life. I didn’t really do school. I had dyslexia and ADHD, so regular schooling wasn’t really my style. The only other kids I really met were kids of professors who came with us on expeditions. But as I grew older, fewer and fewer parents brought their children to the heart of South America looking for a lost Mayan civilization. I had no idea why.
“Nymeria,” my father called from outside the tent.
I was probably in trouble. My dad never used my first name. I quickly walked outside and let the hot, humid air of the South American jungle smack me in the face. Dad could never get digs anywhere nice. For example, Paris or London.
“Yeah, dad?” I asked.
“Did you take my book of ancient languages of Mayan cultures?” He asked, digging through his bag.
I rolled my eyes. “As it would take me a hundred years to read it, I am going to have to say no.”
“Nym, the more you practice reading, the better you will be at it.” He said.
I lifted up my headphones. “I read plenty, just with my ears and not my eyes.”
He took his head out of his bag. My dad was handsome, well, according to all the female archeologists anyways. He had deep tan skin from spending hours in the sun. His hair was a dark brown that had streaks of grey. His beard was longer than it usually was. So, long that the grey streaks started peeking out behind the red highlights. I think his eyes were what got most girls. They were a bright blue like two opal gems. It was something we had in common.
“At least you are reading.” He said.
I looked on the floor beneath him where his book was lying and walked over and picked it up. “You would lose your head if it wasn’t attached to your shoulders.” I handed the book to him.
He smiled softly. “Your mother used to say that all the time.”
I stopped. He never talked about her. “What was she like?” I took this chance to try to pry more out of him.
He pursed his lips, his eyes lost in memory. “She was intelligent, beautiful, and had a knack for getting into trouble. Just like someone else I know.” He laughed.
“What happened to her?” The moment I let the words slip, I knew I messed up.
His eyebrows creased, drawing worry lines along his forehead and mouth. “She’s gone, and that’s all that matters. I should get to the dig site. Try to go into town and see if they have any supplies we can use. We only have a few more weeks on this site, and I have barely scratched the surface.”
He tucked the book in his bag and set down the hill towards the dig site. I sighed, brushing a strand of my hair behind my ear. I should have been happy with any information about my mother. But it honestly left me sad and empty. I tucked my headphones into my ears and hit play on my phone. The narrator continued with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and I set down the path towards the rainforest.
Sure, my dad had said to go into town. But the town was dull. I had explored everything I needed to see two days into our stay here. The people were friendly, and I practiced my Portuguese, so talking to them was no problem. But they tended to stay away from outsiders, so they got boring pretty quickly.
As I walked into the jungle, the air-cooled, and it was darker. I know what you’re thinking. Why is she going into a jungle alone where 95 percent of the things that lived there wanted to eat her? That’s a great question, and I have a simple answer for you. I was bored.
I followed the trail for a while until it finally became predictable, so I set off on my own. I knew all about the jungle I had grown up in many. I could tell which plants were poisonous. Which vines were snakes and what a hungry pair of eyes looked like. I finally reached an incline to a mountain. I walked closer and tripped on something. I looked down and almost screamed. It was a human femur. I backed up and scanned the area. There were no signs of any predators. The bones looked ancient. They were covered in moss and plants. I looked around a quickly discovered more. I gathered up all the pieces, and, I had the semblance of a human skeleton by the end. I was just missing the head. I looked around under bushed until I finally spotted something glittering in the sun. It was a helmet, and inside the helmet was the skull I was looking for. It was old, and the metal was rusted, but it wasn’t hard to figure out that it was a Spanish helmet from the time of the conquistadors. My dad was going to be so excited. I turned around to head back to camp to show him when I found a cave entrance.
Oh, did I love a good cave entrance. I left the skull and helmet outside, promising to grab them after I had done some searching inside. I walked in, and the smell of damp hit my nose. I grabbed my flashlight from my pack and flicked it on. I quickly realized I wasn’t in a mountain cave but rather an ancient temple the forest had reclaimed. The walls glittered with goldstone. Everything was covered in dust and cobwebs, but I ventured in further.
Trust me, I had seen Indiana Jones enough times to watch my step. The tunnel widened out to a vast room. There was light filtering from a skylight that cast the room in an eerie glow. Everything was gone. All the gold was carted off by pillagers long ago. But it was still beautiful to think that ancient people had stood exactly where I had stood. I looked at the walls that were covered in beautiful mosaic tiles that were worn with time. I took out my headphones and hit pause on the story.
A stick snapped behind me. I spun around, casting my flashlight around the room. There was nothing there. I figured it was a wild animal scurrying across the floor.
Boy, was I wrong.
A deafening roar shook the foundation of the temple. I almost dropped my flashlight, but I caught it at the last second. As I stood back up and lifted the light, my heart stopped beating. It was hideous. It was a large, well, mixture of animals. The body was that of a lion. Powerful claws scratched the aging stone as it stood. Its fur melted into a thorned tail blacker than midnight. Its face was the worst of all. Its lion’s mane gave way to a human face. A man’s face with razor-sharp teeth and a manic look in his two different colored eyes.
“I have been looking for you for a long time.” The creature growled in a thick french accent.
Why a hideous lion scorpion man thing had a french accent, I had no idea.
“What… what are you.” I pressed myself into the wall.
He chuckled and crept closer. “How old are you?” He sniffed the air. “Well past 12. Quite old for a half-blood.”
A half-blood? I looked around and saw a vine that climbed up to a broken balcony.
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” I inched closer to the vine.
“How have you survived this long by yourself?” He asked, flicking his tail menacingly.
“Seriously, you have the wrong girl.” I was in front of the vine now. I would have to drop the flashlight to climb, losing view of the monster.
“Trust me, I can smell a half-blood from miles away. I have been tracking you for weeks, waiting for a moment to get you alone.” He flexed his paws.
I threw the flashlight as hard as I could, hitting him square in the nose. He howled, rubbing his face with his paws. I took the opportunity and began scrambling up the vine. I was halfway up when something hit the wall inches from my face. It was a thorn from his tail. I climbed faster. I gripped the stone edge of the balcony and pulled myself up.
“You can’t run forever, little half-blood.” He called beneath.
Sure, I couldn’t run forever, but I sure as hell could try. I was without a flashlight and stumbled down the corridor in the dark. There could have been pits or traps ahead, but I didn’t have time to think about it. I turned the corner and saw a light. I pumped my legs exploding through the doorway. It turned out to be another opening to the main room, and this balcony had fallen away a long time ago. I plummeted towards the floor. Luckily it wasn’t that high up, but it still hurt. I hit the ground hard, and the wind was knocked out of me.
Idiot.
I sat up and saw the manticore was gone, and I had a straight shot towards the exit. I got up and kept running. I ran out the corridor and into the jungle. Before I could take a step on my trail, something shoved me hard from behind. I hit the ground again and got a mouthful of dirt. I turned around, and a giant paw was on my chest.
“I have no idea how you survived this long being this stupid.” The beast said, smiling wickedly at me.
I grabbed a fistful of dirt and threw it in his face. He stumbled back, and I was on my feet again. I grabbed a large stick and stood my ground. There was no way I could outrun this thing. I’ve been with my father to the african savannah plenty of times. A lion could run up to 50 miles per hour. There was no outrunning him. I looked at my stick. There was no way of fighting him either, but I had limited options.
“You said I was a half-blood; what is that?” I demanded, trying to keep him talking.
“We’re half-bloods.” A voice said above me.
When I didn’t think things could get any weirder, flying horses landed in the clearing. They were carrying kids that looked my age. There was a boy. He was big, and his arms were the size of cannons. His hair was crazy curly, and his eyes a rich brown. He was wearing an orange shirt. The other pegasus carried a girl who looked barely 14. She had caramel brown skin and wild curly brown hair. She had a bow pinned on the beast in front of me.
“Oh, so you brought friends?” The monster laughed. “More food for me.”
“Not today.” The girl said and let her arrow fly.
The monster swatted the arrow away easily, and it embedded itself inches from my feet.
“Hey!” I protested.
She gave me a smile. “Sorry!”
The boy pulled out a large ax and leaped off the pegasus. He swatted at the beast who danced away from him. The girl landed next to me and tossed me a bronze sword.
“Here, you’ll need this.” She said.
I had taken fencing lessons when I was in England, so I knew the basics. But what good was I against the lion thing? But my body seemed to work for me. The girl and I leaped into battle. I swung my sword, and it slashed the monster’s hide. It howled, spinning around to swat us, but the girl was ready. She released an arrow that exploded with yellow dust right in his face. He coughed violently, and the boy swung the ax hard. It hit the beast’s front paw wiping him to the floor. The boy raised the ax to deliver the final blow, but the tail came right for him. I leaped into action, swinging my sword cutting the tail clean off. In mid-air, I turned the sword, and it sunk right into the lion’s skull. He evaporated instantly in a puff of yellow dust. We all stood there a moment, breathing heavily.
“You’re a natural!” The boy said, patting me on the shoulder.
I shook him off, taking a step back raising my sword. “What the hell is going on?”
The girl raised her hands in defense. “My name is Amari, and this is Michael. We are from a place called Camp Halfblood.”
“God, what is with that word?” I asked.
“Gods.” Michael corrected. “Have you ever heard of the Greek gods?”
“Of course, my dad had a dig in Greece a couple years ago.” I vaguely remember him teaching me about Zeus and Poseidon and what not.
“They are real, and we.” She motioned to all of us. “Are children of them.”
“No, my dad is a professor at Harvard University, and my mother…” My voice trailed off.
“Let me guess, you never met your mother you dad probably told you that she was dead or left you, right?” Amari said.
I nodded.
“She is a goddess.” She finished.
“No, my dad would have told me.” I protested.
“He probably didn’t know.” Michael shrugged. “It happens all the time.
My dad was the smartest man I knew. He had spent his whole life studying ancient civilizations and mythologies. If my mom was a goddess, he would know.
But would he tell you? He never talked about her, and when he did, it was vague and unhelpful.
"Alright, then who is my mom?” I asked, lowering my sword.
They both shrugged. “I don’t know. She should have claimed you by now you look old for a half-blood who has been on their own.”
“The monster thing said the same thing.” I nodded to the pile of dust.
“Wait, you said your dad has a dig site in Greece? Have you been moving around your whole life? Michael asked.
"Yeah, we never stay in the same place for longer than a couple months,” I said.
“That’s why you’re alive. Monsters probably didn’t have enough time to find and kill you.” He said.
“Alright, back up,” I said. “You said you were from Camp Halfblood. What is that?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. It’s a summer camp for kids like us. It’s the only safe place on earth for half-bloods.”
“Besides Camp Jupiter.” Amari piped in.
“Yeah, besides them.” He agreed.
“So, how did you find me?” I asked.
“Well, the gods send our oracle messages sometimes. Like, hey, go pick up my kid in Brooklyn. We got a message to come here.” Amari said.
“But why now? Why not before?” I asked.
“Dunno. You probably weren’t in danger until the manticore came along. The older you get, the more potent you smell is.” He said.
“My smell?”
“Not like you smell bad or anything. It’s just monsters can smell the godly blood in us or something.” Amari said.
“Okay, to recap. My mom is a goddess, monsters have been chasing me my whole life, and I smell.” I sat on a rock.
“I know it’s a lot to take it,” Amari said, sitting next to me. “We’ve all been there, trust me. But you have to come with us to Camp Halfblood. You aren’t safe here anymore.”
“But what about my dad? My life?” I asked.
“Once we get you to Camp Halfblood and trained, you can come back in the off months to still live with him. But as old as you are, it’s way too dangerous for you not to have any training.” He said.
This was crazy. Two random teenagers on flying horses just march into my life telling me I am half god? Then again, I was attacked by some weird lion scorpion thing. I had to talk to my dad first.
“I need to see my dad. I can’t just leave without saying anything.” I said.
“Totally.” Amari stood up and walked over to her flying horse, which I think was called a pegasus. “We can take you to him.”
“Okay.” I walked over to the horse. It was a beautiful brown color, and it rubbed into my face making me smile.
She hopped on the horse and stretched her hand out to me. I hesitated at first, but after a deep breath, I gripped her hand, and we were off.
